Detection of a narrow band signal transmitted at unknown time, frequency, amplitude, and phase and in a wideband, cluttered radio frequency noise environment imposes technical challenges. Detection techniques typically have to contend with finding a threshold to reduce false alarms while providing reliable detection. As a minimum duration of spectral events required to qualify for processing is lowered, the number of events observed increases exponentially. This is also true as the allowable signal to noise ratio (SNR) is lowered. These factors make reliable detection of low SNR and short duration signals increasingly challenging.